A portrait

Chillies, shot with a Nikon D5000

This is one of Nikon’s official Nikon D5000 photos — the entire gallery is here.

Click on the thumbnail below to open up the full-resolution image in a new browser window, or just right-click to save to your hard drive.

Chillies, shot details:

File size: 6.16 MB

Shutter speed: 1/80 sec

Aperture: f/3.2

ISO: ISO 800

Focal length: 60mm

Lens: Nikon 60mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Micro-Nikkor Macro

Picture control: Vivid

White balance: AWB (Automatic White Balance)

Exposure mode: Aperture-Priority Auto (-1/3 EV)

Exposure metering: 3D Color Matrix Metering II

Full-sized photo of forlorn ole Maxi the dog

This was just a grab shot of my parents’ pet cross-bred miniature pinscher. The image was shot with the Nikon D90 in RAW mode, and a straight conversion to JPEG was done in Nikon View using the highest quality setting.

Click the image to view in full-resolution.

Full-sized photo of a Heliconia psittacorum flower

The photo below (click for the full-resolution version) was taken with the help of a Gitzo GT1931 tripod, which was used to stabilize the D90 plus 60mm AF-S macro.

The RAW file had gone through edits (exposure, brightness, levels and contrast adjustments to make sure olors and sharpness pop without blowing out the red channel) in Apple Aperture, and the resulting JPEG was exported using the highest quality setting.

My review and test photos

I bought this lens on December 22nd, 2008 to replace my Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF.

The Nikkor 50 / 1.4 was great in the bokeh department, but biting sharpness wasn’t one of its strengths.

In purchasing the 60mm AF-S Micro-Nikkor, I was looking for a lens that could yield images with excellent sharpness throughout the frame at wide-open aperture of f/2.8 and when stopped all the way down to f/22.

I’d say this lens delivers what I want in spades.

The bokeh on this lens isn’t unpleasant (and nowhere near as harsh as what the Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF would give you when stopped down to f/2.8 or smaller), but don’t expect Leica or Zeiss-like creamy and dreamy bokeh. The images below (which I took with my Nikon D90) show what the bokeh looks like at f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6 and f/8. Clicking on the photo brings you to the full-sized version, which were converted from the RAW / NEF files using Nikon Capture NX 2 with no further edits.

f/2.8:

f/4:

f/5.6:

f/8:

To get an idea of what a half-body portrait with some background foliage would look like as far as bokeh goes, here’s one of my buddy, John Ishii, playing the guitar.

Another f/2.8 shot of John Ishii, this time taken indoors at ISO 800 (edited in NX2) with a Nikon D3X, shows front and rear bokeh quality and characteristics.

You can clearly see the vignetting at the upper left corner, something that you’ll have to live with if shooting at wide apertures on Nikon’s FX (full frame) digital SLR cameras.

Full-sized samples at LensBuyersGuide.com

This page at LensBuyersGuide.com has a number of full-sized Nikon 60mm f/2.8G AF-S images for download.

I like that the gallery has samples of architecture photography as it seems that the 60mm AF-S lens is able to capture sharp details of subjects at distance, even at full-open aperture of f/2.8.

Reviews

Nikon 60mm f/2.8: AF-S vs. AF-D versions

Are you trying to decide whether to get the newer Nikon 60mm f/2.8G AF-S or the 60mm f/2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor lens?

Photographs of subjects at a distance taken with the AF-S version are sharp. A common complaint with the older AF-D was that it was optimized for close-up photography, hence close-up images were sharp, but not when you’re shooting objects at a greater distance.

The newer 60mm f/2.8 lens has better contrast and micro-contrast, meaning that tonal and textural differences are better delineated.

Photos taken with the newer AF-S version have better dimensionality. Images look more “real” due to the better 3-D effect.

60mm AF-S review SLRGear.com

Juanjo Viagran’s brief user review and photos

This forum post has lots of photos of the 60mm AF-S lens itself, plus some sample images.

Interesting is Juanjo’s use of the retractable Nikon HR-5 rubber hood which seems to be more flexible in use than your old typically rigid lens hood. It’s the first time I’ve seen a photo of this hood on the internet.

Photos comparing the 60mm AF-S vs the older AF-D version of the lens also show that the lens barrel of the newer 60mm macro does not telescope. In other words, the length of the lens is fixed and won’t extend even when you perform close focusing. This is the reason why the AF-D gives an additional inch of working distance compared to the new lens (see Ken’s review for details).

If you had read through Ken’s review linked to above, you would have noticed that Ken doesn’t recommend this lens for 1:1-type macro shooting (bugs and the like). In Juanjo’s thread however, one recommended application of the 60mm AF-S is for food photography where extreme close-focusing is not required, but sharpness and a shorter focal length (so that the camera doesn’t have to be too far away from the food) are desirable.

Juanjo notes that the autofocusing speed on the AF-S version is so much faster than on the older AF-D. Bokeh also seems much better.

A bit more on the subject of flare in Nikon 60mm f/2.8G AF-S photos

grrrega likes the new Nikon 60mm macro lens, but finds that visible flare in images is a problem. Nevertheless, the lens is great to hold, has great AF (autofocus), captures a lot of detail, and is sharp regardless of whether the subject is near or far.